The continued growth of the “Cloud”;

The expansion of access to quality high-speed broadband at improving prices confirms the direction for service delivery by application service providers. It is toward cloud computing and the plethora of “as-a-service” platforms and solutions.

I am not aware of any studies that indicate less than double digit growth for hosted applications. However, it is the addition of IP enabled devices connecting to much improved cloud delivery platforms that is driving the demand. According to the Four Years of Broadband Growth report, 500 million IP-enabled devices are connected to Internet in homes across the U.S. This is nearly two devices for every man, woman and child in the country and does not include business-connected devices.

If you have doubts about the potential and demand for cloud services, it is time to rid yourself of them. The term “confluence” comes to mind. We are at a time where the confluence of devices, applications, data centers, networks and access has removed nearly all obstacles to cloud computing.

Through the combination of smartphones, tablets and laptops, it is estimated that 70 percent of Americans have mobile devices that can access the Internet. And the accessibility for those devices to advanced mobile broadband, or LTE, is 80 percent. Indeed, we have reached the point where it is more difficult to disconnect than to connect. There is no longer a connected generation but instead a connected country. Every day we access an application that is not resident on our IP-enabled device.

The demand for mobility and hosted applications can be verified by the behavior of those around us, as well as the plummeting sales of traditional PCs — and in our industry, PBXs. Businesses are embracing hosted communications, unified messaging, Web meetings and point-to-point video in ever-greater numbers. The ability to productively utilize these applications and tools anywhere, anytime, using any device over any network is a requirement not a desire. Today, using 6MBps as the measure,  93 percent of Americans have access to wireline broadband and by 2016, 98 percent of Americans will have access to advanced 4G wireless broadband.

The major factor inhibiting ever broader adoption of cloud computing and services for consumers is price. However, for SMBs and enterprises, price is not an issue. In fact, with the transition to IP infrastructures and SIP trunking, most businesses have experienced a decline in the cost of communications. Yet, the percentage of business using VoIP is still less than 10 percent — and this is not a concern, but rather an opportunity. An opportunity for you to participate in a market that is just now moving beyond the early adopter, giving you the chance to attain new customers, revenue growth and improved margins through the delivery of innovative hosted applications and services.